Moving on the Web: Music, Video and Networking

For the past few months I've been providing links to the various artist's sites when they are mentioned in articles I'm posting. I'm not terribly consistent in providing links for every one, but I try to include any I can find. It amazes me how many artists, performing at the professional level, do not have a personal website, a MySpace page or biographical information dedicated to their career. Many artists are listed with their agency (IMGArtists does a nice job of create a bio page for all the artist they represent), but this isn't quite the same as a personal webpage.

I know I, too, am lacking a website, but since my career is just beginning, I'm not sure how many people would be looking for my presence on the web. A website is really only good if people are trying to find you. It doesn't really promote you like a newspaper or magazine article does (as a website doesn't go into peoples homes; people have to go looking for it). Still, if you're a professional artist, people are going to be looking for you. Therefore, a website would be a great way to gather a lot of information about yourself, other projects you're involved with they may not know about and promote yourself even further to those that have sought you out.

On the flip side, there are websites artists use which do promote you and your work. Facebook is one that gets a fair amount of attention, but MySpace is designed to aid artists in getting new fans. Active fans can assist in promoting artists they like by linking in music and videos to their own pages. It does more than a personal website, it generates interest.

I'm not sure why I've been so slow, but I am just now getting a MySpace page setup and functional - http://www.myspace.com/Chip_Michael. My daughter has been trying to get me to create a presence on MySpace as "all the top artists have MySpace pages, Dad." You'd think, coming from an Internet/software development background that I'd be way into getting setup with all the various Internet networking sites. Somehow, I've been a bit focused on writing music (and this blog).

Anyway, the site is up. One of the nice features of MySpace is the ability to post both music and video. So, there are links to players for some of music - at least the music I've created mp3 players for, and there are videos of some of the films I've written music for. This is (IMHO) one of the best features as it's a good way to get a glimpse at what I've done.

However, having said that I find that my musical style has changed pretty dramatically over the years. One of my earliest projects was "Silly Games." While I still enjoy the jazz trio sound through most of the film, I "Micky Mouse" the cues a bit much. "Complacency" is an animation that I really enjoy and although I tend to tag the action a bit in this film, too, it's an animation and can support it. "Moving Targets" is probably the most ambitious of the films. I really tried to orchestrate the score all the way through as there is no dialog. All in all, they are good examples of my progress in film score writing.

Another aspect of MySpace is the linking of friends. So far my list is pretty small, but I just started the page this weekend. Maybe, if you're reading this page, you can link in and add me to your friend list (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). Or you could comment on the music or videos I have posted.

I also have a Facebook and a LinkedIn. They've been up for a while and doing well in terms of contacts and network. Adding MySpace is just trying to leverage another aspect of the Internet.

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